


Running Angels

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, humans!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 14:39:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15997313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: There’s no one in the whole world, past, present and future, that can take better care of himself than Liam.It’s not even presumption, it’s just the way things are. The clues are all there, clear as the sun, the dirty sneakers, the shorts, the sweaty t-shirt. Even the bandana keeping his hair out of his face. This is how an healthy responsible human being looks like. This is how the healthiest motherfucker alive looks like.





	Running Angels

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, Liam having a dog named Scott is now a thing, but this is in no way related to The Neighbors Song. It's also not particularly good (at all).

 

 

There’s no one in the whole world, past, present and future, that can take better care of himself than Liam.

It’s not even presumption, it’s just the way things are. The clues are all there, clear as the sun, the dirty sneakers, the shorts, the sweaty t-shirt. Even the bandana keeping his hair out of his face. This is how an healthy responsible human being looks like. This is how the healthiest motherfucker alive looks like.

The last time Liam went running he was nine and there was a kid twice his size who wanted to beat the holy hell out of him. He was convinced Liam stole his lunch or some shit like that. Ridiculous.

But no one is running after him now. No one wants to kill him.

 _Some_ people want to kill him, okay, his neighbour Mrs Jenkins for example, but she’s two hundred years old, Liam doesn’t need to run to escape her walking stick.

It all really goes back to Liam being an explosion of diligence and self preservation. He _invented_ taking care of yourself. They should put his face on those protein shakes ads on Instagram. Not that he drinks them, they’re expensive as hell and coke is so much better anyway, but god, he’s being so mature right now. Running when no one is trying to catch you and beat you with a stick. His parents really did an amazing job with him, didn’t they.

There’s an isolated trail coasting the river right next to Liam’s house, quiet and immersed in nature, and Liam will be damned if he goes there where no one can see him being all healthy and superior to everyone else. The park is his goal, that’s where _they_ are.

Liam spots one of them as soon as he sets foot in the park, a water bottle in his hand and an elastic band tied on his shoulder, two clear signs of his status symbol as a runner. Liam didn’t bring any, but he doesn’t need them because he’s there to run and all he really needs are his legs. He nods knowingly to the other runner as he passes by, because for once in his life he can do that, he can be a part of their superior healthier race, pun intended, and not being the one silently judged as he walks his dog really slow with a bagel in his mouth and a level of cholesterol high as the trees surrounding them.

Liam is done with that life, Scott already pooped on the floor this morning anyway, and he’ll be the one running and silently judging walking people today.

 

 

 

Liam is going to die.

He’s not being dramatic or anything, he’s not just tired, he can literally feel all his organs shutting down one by one while his face just gets redder and redder. It’s not like he can see his own face, but he can see the reflection of it in the concerning looks he’s getting from people.

It doesn’t matter, he might be red, he might be in the middle of a stroke, he’s still running. He’s still mature and responsible and better than just everyone else in the world, simple as that.

He’s also managing to survive somehow.

First it’s the lace of his shoe that really needs to be tied up again even if it already is. Then it’s his nose that just needs to be blown and you don’t do that while running now, do you. At some point he just pretends to do stretching and it doesn’t matter what’s the pretext, it works. He runs a little, a few minutes maximum, and then he stops, as soon as he’s out of people’s sight –he can’t have people judging him for needing so many breaks, not today, not when he’s the one in his right to judge others.

Everything goes according to the plan, until suddenly it doesn’t.

Liam is having his eleventh break of the morning when some people appear out of nowhere from a curve at the end of the path and he pretends to examine an inexistent cut on his arm for a few seconds more before he starts running again, painting an unimpressed, bored, healthy expression on his face.

That’s when it happens. His body suddenly fails him like it failed him that time when he was nine, which is why he still has a scar where that kid beat him with a stick -his sandwich wasn’t even that good by the way. His legs hurt, his heart beats like crazy, the air is too dense in his lungs and Liam still doesn’t stop, because he literally just started running in front of all those people and he can’t stop now or everyone will see his weakness and he will be judged. He just needs to reach the curve behind them, bring himself out of their judging little eyes and die in silence. Hopefully they’ll never link the news of his death on the newspaper with the fit, calm and almost bored runner they spot at the park.    

Liam is not nine anymore and he can outrun just every kid in the world now, so he does it. He makes it to the curve and he bows, his hands on his knees as he pants heavily, vision blurred and the heat on his sweaty skin just too heavy to bear. That’s it, that’s how he goes.

He hopes Mason will take care of Scott for him and walk him three times a day.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Liam always thought he was going to hell after his demise because of all the lunches he stole when he was nine, but being the healthiest person on the planet, even if for just one day, has his benefits apparently, because that right there is obviously an angel.

“Here, drink some water.”

Liam is not even sure he knew what green was before looking in those eyes and he discovers he can still move his body just when his hand automatically reaches the bottle of water the angel is handing to him. When the fresh liquid runs in his throat, Liam experiences rebirth at its finest. He drinks it all till the last drop and he raises his torso like a phoenix raises from his ashes, a new lifeblood running through his veins.

“Holy shit, I thought you were dying right here, you shouldn’t be running for too long if you’re not used to it, you know.” There’s sweat on the angel’s forehead and a suspicious elastic bend tied around his muscular shoulder with a pedometer in it. Liam can see now all the clues of the lie: not an angel. He’s one of them and he’s been all along. “You also finished my water.”

Liam can’t believe he outran the others just to be caught and judged in his moment of weakness by another runner and his brain immediately starts racing for a way out.

“What are you talking about? I was just looking at the ants. See? They’re carrying bread crumbs. It’s fascinating.” There are not ants on the path and if there was Liam wouldn’t know because his vision is still a little blurred. “Over there, can’t you see them? Weird, are your eyes okay? Maybe _you_ ran too much, you know, you shouldn’t do that if you’re not used to it.”

He prints a judging look in his eyes because you can’t be judged if you judge first, but the fake angel doesn’t seem to mind, chuckling softly. Liam is a little dazzled by the sound. But mostly the sun.

“You really took a sunstroke, didn’t you.”

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much. Actually, I was just going to keep running.” Liam gains time and breath by throwing the empty bottle in a near bin. Maybe the angel will fly away now and he will be able to extend his break a little longer.

“Mind if I join you?”

Liam sighs heavily, before faking a smile on his lips. It really seems the universe wants him to run with no pause for the rest of his life, just like people in limbo.

“Sure, if you can keep up.”

“It’s better if you alternate running and fast walking when you do it for the first time, you know.” The angel insists, as if that wasn’t exactly what Liam was doing before the other humans assaulted him. “I do that all the time when I’m out of shape.”

He doesn’t look capable of being out of shape, Liam can’t help but notice. They have gyms in paradise nowadays it seems.

“I’m always in shape.” He replies feeling a little called out by the angel's ridiculously big biceps. It’s not even a lie. Liam always has a shape. Not necessarily the same all the time, but he does have one and that’s all you need to be alive, some kind of shape resembling a human being.  

“Sure you are. I’m Theo by the way.”

“Theo.” Liam nods because he wants to taste it on his tongue. Yes, good, that’s appropriate for an angel. Then he realizes Theo is looking at him perplexed. “I mean, Liam.”

“Nice to meet you.” Theo smiles and Liam takes in the way the sun hits his blindingly white teeth and the way wrinkles appear at the corner of his eyes. “So, will you walk with me a little, since I can’t keep up, Liam?”

“I mean, I can probably tone it down a little if you need to, yes.” Liam concedes as his body relaxes now that running is once again classified as a drastic response to extremely dangerous situations only. “I guess it’s just what I’ll have to do, right? Helping others and stuff.”

Theo keeps smiling. “I guess so.”

 

 

 

They walk for quite some time chatting about pretty much everything, until another group of healthy people runs close to them.

Liam can feel their judging eyes on him, so he clears his voice and points at the ground, talking very loudly.

“Look how many ants, Theo. We had a great idea to stop, they’re so fascinating.”

“I’ll tell you a secret.” As soon as the others are gone, Theo steps closer, an amused glint on his eyes. Liam glances back curious and before he can ask anything Theo’s hair is brushing his cheek as the boy leans closer, his voice a soft breath on his ear and his scent a sharp mix of sweat and paradise. “Nobody actually cares if you’re not running.” He steps back with a grin as Liam frowns. “I know, crazy. We’re all just too focused on not dying to notice how many breaks someone else takes.”

Liam never thought about that. He suddenly looks around, a new view on things. What if they’re _all_ dying and not just him. What if nobody can actually judge anybody.

“You noticed.” He points out anyway because he’d be dead otherwise.

Theo shrugs. “Well, you were literally dying. Like, literally, not like everyone else.”

Liam was dying and that never happened to him when he was lying on the couch eating pizza, which is a funny thing because everyone seems so certain that running is healthier than that, but guess what.

“Well, I’ll tell you a secret too.” He says after a while with astounding courage, because escaping death always changes people deeply.

“I’m all ears.”

“There’s a place nearby that makes the best milkshakes in the city.”

“I don’t believe you.” Theo grins, crossing his arms on his chest. There are countries smaller than his chest, Liam is sure of it.

“Then we’ll just have to-”

“Go and take one right now?” Theo smiles. “I guess we’ll just have to do that, yeah.”

 

 

Liam takes a double chocolate milkshake and he’s not the healthiest motherfucker on the planet after all.

Theo’s smile on the other hand is the cutest in the world, no doubt there.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This will likely be my last writing incursion in the fandom for a while. Life has been having a weird sense of humour lately and for some reason I’m not as excited as I used to be to post stuff here, which translates in also not being as excited to write in the first place. Also Liam is slowly going mental in all my stories apparently. I’ll still lurk around and read though, so I’m not actually going anywhere, just being dramatic.  
> (Btw if you DM me I’ll totally tell you what was supposed to happen in Hot Pillow because I left it on a cliffhanger and surprisingly enough I’m not evil)  
> Love you all, bye.


End file.
